If your BMI is 40+, you need serious medical supervision. At 32-39, your doctor should at least sign off that you're healthy enough for that level of activity. This rule has been in place for adults for a while, not sure if it's new for Scouts (although all Scouts have to have a doctor signed medical form for any of the high adventure activities).

My BMI used to be 36.7.

24.5 today. At age 52, I weigh the same as I did in high school. Unfortunately, my hair's not coming back.

The theme is health and fitness . . . so they're turning away the scouts that need it most. It makes sense from a liability standpoint, but they probably could have been more accommodating and actually helped these kids out.

I agree, but I suspect it would be better for the children if we could just stop pretending that "parents know best" in every situation, and just require certain types of training for all children, even if their biological parents are incapable or unwilling to provide it. Putting parents in jail would at least acknowledge some of the responsibility, but it's still gonna leave us with with fat 12-year-olds.

profplump:Putting parents in jail would at least acknowledge some of the responsibility, but it's still gonna leave us with with fat 12-year-olds.

Not if you put them in the care of someone responsible. 12 year olds don't have jobs, money, can't drive or do the grocery shopping. The parents are 100% responsible for everything their kids shove in their pie-hole.

TFerWannaBe:The theme is health and fitness . . . so they're turning away the scouts that need it most. It makes sense from a liability standpoint, but they probably could have been more accommodating and actually helped these kids out.

The scouts being turned away have serious medical issues if they're at 40+ BMI. That's something they wouldn't have the medical staff or response time available to handle in this rural place.

TFerWannaBe:The theme is health and fitness . . . so they're turning away the scouts that need it most. It makes sense from a liability standpoint, but they probably could have been more accommodating and actually helped these kids out.

Yours and other's comments that are against this "discrimination" may have got it wrong. I don't think the BMI filter was related to scouting. Just related to the jamboree and this facility.

Girion47:TFerWannaBe: The theme is health and fitness . . . so they're turning away the scouts that need it most. It makes sense from a liability standpoint, but they probably could have been more accommodating and actually helped these kids out.

The scouts being turned away have serious medical issues if they're at 40+ BMI. That's something they wouldn't have the medical staff or response time available to handle in this rural place.

Hey, they are allowing in openly gay scouts now. Not openly gay leaders, but I figure give it long enough for the openly gay boys to get their Eagle and ask to be leaders, and that will change too.

Lots of the outdoor activities the Scouts do are somewhat rigorous. I have never been to a Jamboree, so I can't say how important health/fitness is there, but bringing a 300 lb 14 year old hiking is asking for trouble. Kicking them out probably isn't the right move, but it is a problem that needs to be dealt with.

As for atheists, yea, that's an issue. I was never asked for my religion in my troop, or at my Eagle Board of Review, but I did paint a room at my church so they could have assumed my faith. Depends on the troop/council whether the rule is enforced, but you are right that it is a bad rule.

DubtodaIll:In that being "physically strong" is in the scout oath, I don't have a problem with this. I actually applaud it.

I think the problem is that society fails them at almost every level, leading to the obesity epidemic, and then to exclude them from a fun event for what is a structural problem, not an individual one, seems unnecessarily punitive.

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich:DubtodaIll: In that being "physically strong" is in the scout oath, I don't have a problem with this. I actually applaud it.

I think the problem is that society fails them at almost every level, leading to the obesity epidemic, and then to exclude them from a fun event for what is a structural problem, not an individual one, seems unnecessarily punitive.